1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lever-type connector comprising a female housing, a lever pivotally mounted on the female housing, and a male housing for fitting to the female housing, the female and male housings being completely fitted together by pivotally moving the lever engaged with the male housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a conventional technique in which in order to reduce an inserting force required for fitting female and male housings together, a lever mounted on one of the housings is engaged with the other housing, and then is pivotally moved to draw the other housing toward the one housing, thereby fitting the two housings together (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
As shown in FIG. 8, in a lever-type connector 50 disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a lever 52 is pivotally mounted on a male housing 51, and a retaining projection 54 is formed on a lock arm 53 of the lever 52. The male housing 51 is inserted into a female housing 55, and then the lever 52 is pivotally moved, and by doing so, the retaining projection 54 is brought into retaining engagement with an engagement projection 56 of the female housing 55 while the lock arm 53 is elastically deformed, so that the male housing 51 is fitted to the female housing 55.
Also, in order to meet a recent demand for a compact design of connectors, there is known a lever-type connector in which a lever is formed by pressing a metal plate, thereby achieving a thin design of the lever (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).                Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2000-91027 Publication        Patent Literature 2: JP-A-2006-24457 Publication        
However, in the lever-type connector 50 disclosed in the above Patent Literature 1, the whole of the lever 52 is made of a resin, and therefore when the lever is designed to have a sufficient strength, it becomes thick and has an increased size, and when the lever is formed into a thin design, there is a fear that its strength may become insufficient.
In the lever-type connector disclosed in the above Patent Literature 2, the lever is made of metal in order to achieve a thin design of the lever. Metal is superior in strength to a resin, but when a metal product is formed into a thin design, it can be plastically deformed by a relatively low load, and therefore can not withstand long use, and is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of durability.